Ann Luttrell was born and now lives in Cork city, Ireland.  She studied literature at University College Dublin, the University of Cincinnati and Columbia College Chicago.   Having lived and worked in the U.S. for over ten years, she came back to Ireland and worked as a teacher of English and French, and for over twenty years served as an Arts Manager at the Triskel Arts Centre in Cork. During this time, she was responsible for organizing literature events at the Centre and working closely with organizations, both locally and nationally, that are involved in literature events. She has acted as a judge for literature awards, most notably the Frank O'Connor Short Story Award. Since 2005 she has been co-Director for the Cork World Book Fest, and although now retired, she continues as an advisor on the programming committee of the Festival.  Her involvement with the International Conference on the Short Story in English began in 2006 when she attended her first conference in Portugal and subsequently attracted the conference to Cork in 2008. Ever since, she has been on the Advisory Board of the Conference, has attended conferences all over the world, and has secured support from Irish cultural bodies to facilitate the participation of Irish writers in each of the conferences. In 2025 she was the local director of the ICSSE conference that took place in Killarney, Co. Kerry.